Joost Rekveld – #71.1

#71.1 is a generative audiovisual composition for radar display tube and analogue chaotic circuit, which was presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam during Sonic Acts Festival 2019. The work is an experimental outcome of a long-term project that aims to give a voice to the materiality of technology with which we surround ourselves. This project aims to develop another view on our current technology and visions of the future by researching early electronic technologies of simulation and control. Analogue electronics is especially interesting since it bridges matter and model, and marks the beginning of the miniaturisation and dematerialisation of our devices. By going back to historical practices Rekveld wants to develop a fresh approach to working with matter on a molecular scale, an approach that is based on analogy and dialogue between physical systems instead of on notions such as the programming of matter.
The first cathode ray tube from 1897 was the direct ancestor of the radiotube, the television tube, the particle accelerator, the electron microscope and the lithographic devices that produce most of our nanoscale electronics. It was the first device in which electrons could be directed, as a way to amplify and control signals, as a way to direct energy, or as a means to show invisible phenomena on a screen. In a vacuum, electrons behave similar to light, focused and deflected by electric and magnetic fields. #71.1 is commissioned as part of STEIM’s microTONE series – a collection of 'sound art works in boxes’, based around the belief that every sound art piece needs and deserves its own box of air molecules, more or less isolated from the rest of the world, undisturbed and undisturbing.
The work was presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019.

Co-commissioned by Sonic Acts
Joost Rekveld is an artist who wonders what we can learn from a dialogue with our machines. He explores the sensory consequences of systems of his own design, often inspired by forgotten corners in the history of science and technology. His films, installations and performances are an attempt to reach an intimate and embodied understanding of our technological world. His films have been shown worldwide, and he collaborated with numerous music and theatre groups. He has been curating since 1990, giving lectures since 1993, teaching since 1996, and from 2008 to 2014 he was the course director of the ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague. Since 2017 he has been affiliated to the School of Arts University College Ghent (KASK) as an artistic researcher.
www.joostrekveld.netPresentations
Sonic Acts Festival 2019
22–24 February 2019
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
www.sonicacts.com